Van driver charged with hitting and killing pedestrian in Dorchester, then driving away

Melissa Benedict, 35, of Dorchester, was arraigned today on charges of motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of an accident causing personal injury or death for an incident around 8 a.m. yesterday on Washington Street near Harvard Street that left a man lying in the street, dead, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Dorchester Municipal Court Judge Paul McManus set bail at $1,000 and ordered Benedict not to drive while her case is pending.

According to the DA's office:

Witnesses reported seeing a white school van with blue lettering van strike the victim and continue driving onto Harvard Street. Boston Police stopped her in just such a vehicle on Morton Street at approximately 8:25 a.m., prosecutors said.

In a post-Miranda interview, she told police that she was traveling on Washington Street with another employee in the vehicle when she heard a loud boom but allegedly stated that she continued driving because she had trouble stopping the van - attributing that difficulty to the fact that the bumper was pushed against the tire as a result of the crash. After stopping on Athelwold Street, Benedict allegedly told police, she called her employer but not 911.

The man's death came less than 24 hours after another Dorchester woman was charged in another fatal hit-and-run crash in Roslindale.

Innocent, etc.